That time of year again

Yes, the cows are fading and the curtains are confused. This morning at 2am/3am the clocks in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and SA went forward one hour in all the households were people remembered/could be bothered changing the time before they went to bed.

For many this will mean that those few moments of daylight that greeted you when you woke up in the morning are now an annoying hour into your future, your kids/partner/pets/neighbours/parents/housemates are cranky and you can’t enjoy the extra hour of sunlight at the end of your day because everyone is cranky/tired/hangry/clogging up the roads or public transport. For others who thought that waking up at the usual time bodyclock wise but closer to get out of bed and get to work time comes the crashing realisation that it just means instead of a leisurely extra hour to get everything sorted before going to work you are hurrying/panicking/yelling at the kids/pets/neighbours/housemates/partner/s/inanimate objects and not enjoying that extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day because everyone still has the shits with you from this morning and/or your keys still haven’t magically reappeared.

So this year we will have a handy ready reckoner for people living with and without Daylight Saving time. Because that will make…nah I got nothing.

First: when, please FSM, will this end?
Sunday April 7 clocks go back one hour.

I want to talk to someone in WA, how long until they wake up?
Well I guess it depends how many times you call them and whether they answer the phone or not. To be nice to someone in WA by calling at a reasonable hour (which will of course vary person to person) subtract 3 hours from the Daylight Savings time (DST) if you live in NSW, ACT, Vic or Tas. If you live in SA subtract 2.5 hours from the current DST to get the time in WA. Queenslanders subtract two hours to get the time in WA. WA you are on your own on this one.

What about NT?
NT doesn’t do DST either, so from the eastern states subtract 1.5 hours from DST to get the current time there. For SA subtract 1 hour. For WA residents nothing has changed for you, nothing to see here.

Qld?
Queensland is a bit easier since they are on the same time zone as us most of the year and sensibly stick with it. In the eastern states subtract one hour from DST, in SA 1/2 hour from DST. WA and NT as you were.

What about my rellies in NZ?
NZ has already started their Daylight Savings time, they started on the last Sunday in September and finish on the first Sunday in April. So the time difference between NZ and eastern states doing DST is +2 hours to get New Zealand time. For Queenslanders +3 hours, for WA +5 hours, for NT +3.5 and for SA +2.5. Take it from me, NZ rellies don’t generally appreciate being woken up by their Aussie rellies calling because they can’t remember the time difference.

So there it is. Now it is time to either kick back and enjoy that sunlight or grit your teeth and wait for April.

*All care and no responsibility is taken for the accuracy or otherwise of this post. If I am horribly horribly wrong anywhere, more than usual, please let me know in comments 😉

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10 replies

I’m a card carrying worshipper of DST. My kids are less cranky because they don’t wake up at 5am and I’m less cranky because I don’t wake up at 5am. We have late starts though – the earliest anyone has to leave the house is 8:30am most days. 6am is quite early enough for anything. 🙂
The going at different times thing is a bitch though. I used to support an NZ company, and in the 3 weeks or so (as it was back then) between when they went to DST and we did, being woken at 4am when they got into the office at 7am to discover problems truly sucked.

Basically, the rule is that the north of the country doesn’t do DST, because once you get past the tropic of Capricorn, there’s not much point to it. WA, because it occupies the whole western 1/3 of the continent, counts as being in the north.
Of course, this hasn’t stopped us from having repeated “trials” of Daylight Savings (approximately one a decade throughout my lifetime so far… the previous multi-year one was trumpeted as being “the last one”, which I’ll believe when I see proof). Basically what happens is that the business community here starts whingeing around this time of the year (every year we don’t have DST) about the problems they face in communicating with the Eastern States, and how it’s SOOOOOO hard to have to get up an extra hour early. And they do this for about five to eight years straight at their local MPs, until in desperation the Premier offers another DST “trial”. At which point EVERYONE has to get up an extra hour early, and yeah, we sympathise with the poor bastards in the business community, it’s hard and annoying, and really if we don’t absolutely have to do this, the majority of us don’t want to. So there’s another referendum on it, and the people vote it down. Again. And the business community starts whingeing to their MPs and anyone else who will listen about how it’s SOOOOOO hard having to get up that extra hour earlier in the morning…
Really, about the only place in WA which really benefits from any DST trial is Albany (being the only population centre far enough south to make a difference).

As I mentioned in the last post on this subject I am a big fan of DST, for much the same reasons Ariane mentions. However I have to say that right now I am going ‘argh it is already nearly 11am and I have so much to do today’.
Also, most of my family is in Queensland (and I am in SA) so we always get confused around this time. It’s not a simple one hour difference but becomes half an hour ahead or half an hour behind. So are we ahead or behind right now? Will I call my parents in the middle of dinner? Who knows.

My response to “yes we need DST” is usually “But the sun is already making an appearance in mid summer before 5am and doesn’t go down again until 8pm. YOU can always wake up earlier in order to walk the dog/go for a walk/get to work on time”
@Megpie71, oh god the trials. The repeated referendums (we said no three times and we got the last trial anyway)

Another do-not-like here. I find the switch harder to recover from than jetlag (I think because my body clock is very responsive to sunlight, so when the time changes but NOT the sunlight, I have no prompt to help with the acclimatisation).
I also really, really love waking up with the sun and having it be nice and early.
My biggest problem with it is actually when it ends. At this time of year and during summer, once I am used to it, it’s ok, and I quite enjoy the light late in the evenings when I am working long hours. BUT it finishes at least a month too late for me. Even if it could finish around the equinox rather than 2-3 weeks afterwards, I’d get a couple more weeks of waking up when it is light.

I’m welcoming the start of DST! Can now spend some time outside with my daughter after dinner rather than being stuck inside because its too dark/cold. Won’t be long before its light late enough that we can head off to the park after dinner too.
I don’t have any curtains/blinds for my bedroom windows so a later sunrise is good for me too.

I loathe DST. Like Julie said, we have ample daylight hours as it is. I get fed up with getting up in the dark (I get the train at 6.30) and having to lug extra layers of clothing to work because it’s still cold at that time, and then having to cart them home again during the hottest part of the day (I finish work at 3pm). Roll on autumn, that’s all I can say.

I remember before 2000, we Queenslanders were repeatedly beaten around the ears for our refusal to join the 20th century. After 2000, we’ve been repeatedly beaten around the ears for our refusal to join the 21st century.
So on that basis, I guess we’ve made progress.